North Pike can’t remember the last time it won a game with a last-second field goal.
It happened Friday night when junior kicker Tyler Vanderslice booted a 22-yard field goal with 11 seconds left to clinch a 10-7 district-opening win over Lawrence County.
“Both teams played hard,” North Pike coach Chris Smith said. “The defense kept us in it.”
The Jags got the ball with about two minutes to go and finally put together a flawless drive that put Vanderslice in position to kick it through the uprights to give North Pike the lead with one second left on the clock.
“Finally the offense went down the field without making a mistake and we won the game,” Smith said.
The Cougars came out and put together a 10-play, 46-yard drive only to be stopped cold by a tough Jaguar defense to open the game. North Pike’s defense controlled the game from that point on.
The only lapse in the stout defense came as the clock ticked to zero in the first half.
Lawrence County quarterback Nico McDonald heaved a 20-yard pass to Gabraun Smith to tie the game at 7. North Pike was more focused on Lawrence County’s Glen Russell, which let Gabraun Smith slip behind the coverage to catch the pass.
That was the only touchdown allowed by North Pike.
The Jags’ offense, however, took a little more time to get things moving.
After going three-and-out on the first drive, the Jags came out swinging on the second drive of the game and marched 70 yards down the field in a drive capped off by junior quarterback Austin Smith’s 1-yard touchdown run.
That would be the Jags’ only touchdown of the game.
Lakedric Lee led North Pike with 93 yards rushing.
“We didn’t come out ready in the first half,” Austin Smith said.
The rest of the game would see the Jags plagued once again with turnovers, something Austin Smith knows he needs to work on.
“I was focused on not making as many mistakes, you know, just keeping the ball off the ground,” he said.
North Pike lost three of its six fumbles — two came on back-to-back drives and one was a fumble at the goal line.
“It was like we sometimes forgot we had the ball,” Chris Smith said.
The Jags take their 1-0 conference record on the road for two-straight games against Purvis and upstart Columbia in the coming weeks. Those games return to a 7 p.m. kickoff.
